Lufthansa Supervisory Board re-arranges remits on Executive Board

Thursday 9, December 2010

New division of responsibilities and new appointees on Lufthansa German Airlines Board, effective 1 April 2011.

In face of the forthcoming change at the helm from Wolfgang Mayrhuber to Christoph Franz on the Lufthansa Executive Board, the Lufthansa Supervisory Board agreed on a re-allocation responsibilities between the four divisions on the Board at its meeting yesterday. The re-structuring becomes effective on 1 January 2011.

At the meeting, a new structure and new appointees to the Lufthansa German Airlines Board was also presented to the Supervisory Board by the member-elect of the Executive Board, Carsten Spohr. The future Lufthansa German Airlines Board will accordingly have three new members with effect from 1 April 2011: Captain Kay Kratky (52), who will be responsible for the Frankfurt and Flight Operations division, Thomas Klühr (48) for Munich and Direct Services and Jens Bischof (45) for Sales and Revenue Management.

The object of re-distributing the business remits on the Board is to network the strategic direction of the Group more closely with its Group airlines and service companies. To that end, the Alliances and Cooperations remit will be assigned organisationally in furure directly under the Chairman and CEO of the Lufthansa Executive Board. Moreover, the CEO and Chairman Dr. Christoph Franz will assume responsibility for the Corporate Legal Affairs department as well as Corporate Executives. The CEO and Chairman remains in charge of the Corporate Strategy, Corporate Fleet Management, Corporate Public Affairs, Corporate Communications and Corporate Audit departments.

Carsten Spohr, who will be responsible for Lufthansa German Airlines on the Lufthansa Executive Board from 1 January 2011, informed the Supervisory Board meeting about the re-distribution of responsibilities and new appointees on the Lufthansa German Airlines Board. The new structure, effective 1 April 2011, will as previously consist of four divisions, albeit with re-distributed responsibilities. The only division not to change is the Finance and Human Resources division, which will still be headed by Dr. Roland Busch (47). The Sales and Revenue Management division will be re-organised to focus more sharply on core marketing and sales activities. Responsibility for Customer Competence Centers, Ground and Cabin Product as well as Marketing and Customer Retention will in future be invested across the passenger transportation business in the Product & Marketing remit. Responsibility for Sales and Revenue management will be assumed by Jens Bischof, a proven sales expert. Jens Bischof has been in charge of sales in North, Central and South America as Area Manager The Americas since 2006. He also oversaw the integration of SWISS as project manager in 2005 and 2006. A business management graduate, he began his career at Lufthansa in 1990. The re-alignment of business responsibilities in the passenger transportation business was necessitated by the appointment, effective 1 April 2011, of Thierry Antinori (49) as the new Chairman of the Executive Board of Austrian Airlines.

Captain Kay Kratky is to take over management of the Lufthansa home base in Frankfurt and will, simultaneously, be in charge of flight operations. He began his career at Lufthansa after completing pilot training in 1979. He became Training Captain on the Boeing 747 and head of Operations Control at Lufthansa Cargo AG in 2001. After holding diverse positions as head of transport management and as Captain on the MD-11, he was named Managing Director of Jade Cargo International, Shenzen (China) in 2008. His predecessor at Flight Operations, Jürgen Raps (59), will devote the remaining months of his career as pilot entirely to flying prior to stepping down into retirement. He will conclude his employment as Training Captain on the A380 in preparation for integration of the new flagship in the Lufthansa fleet, but remain available as consultant to the Lufthansa German Airlines Board.

The Munich and Direct Services division in the passenger transportation business will come under the responsibility next April of Thomas Klühr, who is currently in charge of Hub Management in Munich. Alongside his position in Munich, Thomas Klühr latterly headed the Climb 2011 programme which is designed to reduce the cost base in the Lufthansa passenger transportation business lastingly by one billion euros from 2011. The restructuring of Direct Services is already a key element in the Climb 2011 project. Prior to his appointment as Group Representative and Hub Manager Munich, the business management graduate was in charge of Sales Controlling in the passenger business and diverse projects. From January to April 2011, he will act as interim head of Hub Management and Passenger Service, since the previous incumbent on the Airlines Board, Karl Ulrich Garnadt (53) is to take over as the new CEO and Chairman of Lufthansa Cargo AG on 1 January 2011.

To round off the re-structuring of the passenger transportation business, a new cross-functional Business Development unit has been created. Aside from corporate development, the new unit will oversee network and strategy development across the passenger business area.

The Lufthansa Supervisory Board Chairman, Jürgen Weber, welcomed the plans to realign the passenger business. “With the new management at Lufthansa German Airlines, we have a young team, which will actively face up with elan, drive and a customer-focused structure to the immense challenges arising from increasing competition. It is particularly pleasing that we are again able to fill these positions with proven and experienced executives from our own house. That substantiates our sustained, prudent and professional leadership and management development policy.“

Find the best deals available today

The grey menu on the right is your best friend. Always check before you travel.

More and more travellers think that researching and planning a European city break is half the fun and they're not interested in pre-arranged trips or escorted tours. Self-guided tours offer a lot of advantages but require some guidance and good resources.